Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Another film set in New Zealand and another film about family. This one buries its themes beneath the humour of Taiki Waititi, ably abetted by Julian Dennison as Ricky and Sam Neil as Hec, with Rachel House coming on to steal the odd scene as a social worker that thinks she is Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.
Dennison plays Ricky Baker, a city delinquent who has been fostered by Bella, Hec’s partner. Hec isn’t too pleased with the new arrival and the new arrival isn’t too pleased with his new surroundings.
After Bella’s untimely death the Ricky and Hec go on the run.
Kind of.
Well, they don’t realise that they are on the run, but they are.
Kind of.
You just have to watch it to understand.
Although the film is hilarious and touching in equal measure Waititi is too much of an artist to just rely on those elements, the film is also beautifully shot with an eye for composition.
His and Hers
The second documentary on the list, from 2009, is less conventional than Man on Wire but all the more interesting for its simple premise.
A series of girls/women talk about the men/boys/men in their lives, starting with children talking about their fathers, then boyfriends, then husbands.
The simplicity of the topic is matched by the simplicity of the films aesthetic; mostly static , carefully framed, shots within a domestic setting, a colour palette of primary colours, with only the voices of the women used.
Not only is the film a snapshot of the time it was made it is also a revealing document on how the relationships between the genders changes over time. We see many women but hear of only ‘one’ man.
Reactions will vary according to the students that watch the film. Set in the midlands the film might seem archaic to some, too white to others, or too close to home to most. But the central truths of the film are eternal and, often, hilarious.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
I look at film through the lens of poetry when I introduce it and this film is pure poetry.
A magical realist film from Benh Zeitlin the film centres around a young six-year-old, Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis), who has to learn to fend for herself in the town of Bathtub. With her father seriously ill and her mother missing, she must turn to her community for hep and guidance.
The film is a fairy tale set along the Mississippi delta, with an environmental backdrop involving melting icecaps. But the core of the film is about courage and, once again, love. The courage not only to defend yourself, to take care of yourself, but also the courage to be yourself. The courage not to conform. The giant boar-like aurochs, having been released by the melting glaciers, are coming, a magical realist metaphor to confront Hushpuppy.
Shot in browns and stagnant greens, with flashes of light, the film places itself firmly in the soil of the bayou. We are left in no doubt where these people belong, especially when we are almost blinded by the sharp whites of a hospital later in the film.
Students love the film, they see it as an idyllic existence, and often miss the fantasy at the centre of the story.
Wadjda
A culture shock of a film. Set in Saudi Arabia the film tells the story of Wadjda (Waad Mohammed), a ten-year-old girl that wants to buy a bicycle. To get the money to buy the bicycle she must win a Koran recitation competition, not her strong point.
Haifaa Al-Mansour has a lot to say about how women are treated in Saudi Arabia but doesn’t instead of a creating a polemical text she allows the clear narrative structure of her film to do the talking for her. In Wadjda she has created the perfect conduit for her discussions.
Wadjda is a recognisable character from any culture in any part of the world; a child that wants to play. The fact that she is a female in Saudi Arabia is her only barrier to this simple hope.
Girls aren’t even supposed to ride a bicycle.
Al-Mansour has a clear love of the people of Saudi Arabia, we are never induced to hate any characters just to question their motives. The city of Riyadh is similarly shot to reveal its beauty and question its inhibitions.
16 CinÉireann / June 2018